Zoology and wildlife conservation

A bug with excess gastric activity

Article Abstract:

Scientists at the Institute for Genome Research have been able to fully sequence the 1,667,867 base pairs of Helicobacter pylori, the bacterium that causes peptic ulcers. It has been possible to identify the whole restriction-modification system for recognizing and destroying foreign DNA. This work has also involved establishing how H. pylori mimics blood-group antigens, and will prove very useful for research in many areas, including molecular biology and immunology.

Induced long-range order in crosslinked 'one-dimensional' stacks of fluid monolayers

Article Abstract:

A new study of a smectic (layered) elastomer shows the effect of crosslinking on long-range ordering. The findings, using a high-resolution X-ray diffraction study, shows that the stability of the layered structure is enhanced against thermal fluctuations by the introduction of a random network of crosslinks, which also suppresses the Landau-Peierls instability, thereby inducing 'one-dimensional' stacks of fluid monolayers.